Kostura Cannon
8000 600 500 |buildtime=136 |uses=18 |type=Tactical |hull=4000 |armor=0 |antimatter=300 |desc=A powerful weapon capable of launching a massive energy shockwave at nearby planets. |shortcut=S }} All invasions require considerable preparation before execution. An Exodus Fleet will often need as much time as it can to amass the proper resources and troops to spearhead the charge, which can seem to be a period of vulnerability. But once the time is right, the Vasari waste no time in activating their ultimate weapon - the mighty Kostura Cannon. Equipped with a powerful Energy Warhead, the Kostura's primary function is not to destroy planets, as the TEC's Novalith does, but to disable all structures in the targeted gravity well. The energy shockwave is so potent it disables all structure activities over the course of the next 3 minutes, and deals damage to them. Tactics The Kostura's function is to make life easier for you and your allies by keeping any structures, tactical or logistical, from acting. Unlike the Deliverance Engine or Novalith Cannon, a "Kostura Network" is usually not necessary - one or two cannons will often suffice for your purposes. However, if you do build a large number of Kosturas, the small amount of damage each blast deals will add up, and multiple successive shots can destroy entire defense networks. One Kostura blast does 1275 damage to each structure (reduced by armor), thus, it will take a barrage of 4 of those to destroy another super weapon of any race (and probably every structure on the orbit). The Kostura will not harm friendly units. The Cannon works best against Pirates or major industrial centers where your target cannot move, if you try to hit your enemy's primary fleet with the network of thirty cannons you spent half an hour saving to build, they will (unless they are particularly ignorant) move their fleet one phase jump to the side, watch the fireworks, then move back unharmed. One way this tactic CAN work is if their fleet is particularly huge and unwieldy, and you are fairly close to them. The AI isn't always perceptive as to when they should turn off group jump (or may not even move out of the way at all), and even if they do there are bound to be stragglers, just not 30 Kostura Cannons worth of stragglers. A Kostura can only target enemy gravity wells. If your enemy has a Kostura, the best way to avoid being hit is to stay in uncolonizable, neutral, or enemy territory. The Kostura cannot target these locations. In Entrenchment, you can use lay mines around the enemy fleet while they are stunned, and the immobilized enemy can only watch in horror as a minefield arms around them. As of Rebellion the Kostura cannon no longer affects enemy units (despite still saying it does in the weapon tooltip) and so its primary use is for disabling enemy structures around a gravity well and then being able to launch a surprise attack thanks to the phase stabilizer effect the Kostura impact applies - allowing you to send attackers from any other location in the system with a phase stabilizer. Entrenchment In the period of time between first contact with the other races and the present events of Entrenchment, the Vasari Scientists have upgraded their Energy Warheads to carry a small Phase Stabilization Unit, allowing an Exodus Fleet to instantly jump to the target location if they are stationed around a Phase Stabilizer or Orkulus Star Base with a Phase Stabilizer Array. Alternatively, Two Kosturas can fire in tandem at a pair of targets, allowing for a quicker, though riskier, method. Category:Orbital Structures Category:Vasari Category:Tactical Structure